Welcome to #IceCreamWeek! Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Jen of Juanita’s Cocina have teamed up with more than 20 of their blog friends to bring you a week full of ice cream treats, including a special ice cream giveaway! Prepare to have your taste buds tempted with some of the best ice cream treats around! Make sure you enter the giveaway for a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and two fabulous ice cream cookbooks so that you can join in on the ice cream fun!

I used a vanilla bean in the base for this ice cream, giving it adorable flecks of flavor. Then I needed a bit of chocolate in it because, well, let’s be serious for a moment… It’s not possible for me to go without chocolate at SOME point in the day, and when I made this ice cream,

I hadn’t ingested my daily dose yet. So there’s that.

Then I needed to swing this bad boy creamy goodness over the top of indulgence, so caramel sauce was an easy answer. Not just ANY caramel sauce, though… home made. No worries, Lovelies. I’ll NEVER turn my nose up at you if you decide to buy store bought sauce. It’s very common, especially for uber busy people.

If you’d like to check out today’s #IceCreamWeek recipes, drool over the blogs below:

Enjoy this recipe for chocolate chip caramel swirl ice cream!

This creamy vanilla bean ice cream is loaded with mini chocolate chips and a swirl of sweet caramel.

WHAT'S NEEDED

1 whole vanilla bean, Split And Scraped

12 ounces (1.5 liquid cups) half-and-half

7.5 ounces (1 cup) granulated sugar

4 whole large egg yolks

12 ounces (1.5 liquid cups) heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup caramel sauce (see recipe below)

Caramel Sauce

7.5 ounces (1 cup) granulated sugar

3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter

4 ounces (1/2 liquid cup) heaving whipping cream

HOW TO MAKE IT

Heat half-and-half and sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla “caviar” to the mixture. (You can also add the scraped vanilla bean to the pan for extra flavor, but be sure to discard the bean before moving to the next step.) Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated, but NOT boiling.

Beat egg yolks with a whisk or an electric mixer until pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by SLOWLY drizzling 1/2 cup of hot half-and-half mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture back into the pan containing the rest of the half and half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat until quite thick, stirring constantly. Strain custard through a fine mesh sieve, then pour into bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine and refrigerate until chilled completely.

Prepare in an ice cream maker per manufacturers directions. Add chocolate chips and caramel to machine during last 10 seconds of processing.

Place container in freezer until ice cream is frozen, approximately 4-6 hours.

For the Caramel Sauce

Heat sugar on moderately high heat in heavy-bottomed 2 or 3-quart saucepan. As sugar starts to turn liquid, stir gently with a silicone whisk or wooden spoon. DON'T OVER STIR! Just let the sugar work its magic and stir from time to time to assure that the sugar on the bottom doesn't burn.

As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, STOP STIRRING. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on, but don't stir. Note: This recipe works best if you are using a thick-bottomed pan. If you find that you end up burning some of the sugar before the rest of it is melted or you have large clumps of sugar, turn the heat to low and let it sit untouched...the clumps should melt. Next time you attempt it, add a half cup of water to the sugar at the beginning of the process, OR start with lower heat to help sugar cook more evenly.

As soon as the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color, like an old copper penny), immediately add butter and whisk until butter has melted.

Remove from heat, count to three, then slowly add cream to the pan and whisk to incorporate. NOTE: When you add the butter and cream, the mixture will foam up considerably.

Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass jar and allow to cool to room temperature before adding to the ice cream.

About Chef Bec

Chef Becca Heflin is a formally trained culinary professional in northeastern Wisconsin. She enjoys creating nutritiously delicious dishes, from the heart!
Her favorite recipes are primarily (but not always) from scratch, all-natural, and as quick and easy as possible!
She's also a devoted Christian who's in love with her husband Brian, and she's a die hard Green Bay Packers fan.

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Meet Chef Bec!

Hi! I'm Chef Becca!
I want to help you create nutritiously balanced, delicious food using a common sense approach.
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